Vapers Digest 4th August
Friday’s News at a glance:
How to stop smoking (hint: it’s not making cigarettes more expensive) – FDA’s New Approach to Nicotine Regulation – FDA Inches Closer to Tobacco Harm Reduction – Vaping’s uncool? – Attacks on e-cigarettes one-sided – More evidence shows vaping helps people quit smoking – Tell it to me straight, doctor: – Sarah Jakes interview GFN 2017 – Big tobacco comes to Vancouver – Big Tobacco Won’t Let the FDA Cut Nicotine Without a Fight – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest
How to stop smoking
(Hint: it’s not making cigarettes more expensive)
Marewa Glover and David Sweanor
New Zealand already has some of the highest tobacco taxes in the world, and now some campaigners are calling for them to raised much further. But how effective would that be? Not very, say tobacco-control experts Marewa Glover and David Sweanor. What’s needed are solutions that empower smokers, not punish them further.
The government’s new plan to allow a range of safer alternatives to smoking tobacco, including snus and heat-not-burn products, in addition to electronic cigarettes, shows that New Zealand is once again moving towards leading the world in dealing with the horrendous carnage caused by cigarette smoking.
FDA’s New Approach to Nicotine Regulation
What’s In and What’s Out – CASAA
On Friday, July 28th, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb announced the agency’s new vision for tobacco regulations. As stated, the central driving force behind the proposed shift in policy is the commitment to reduce the harms caused by combustible tobacco use. The most immediately significant part of Commissioner Gottlieb’s announcement is a proposal to extend the deadline for pre-market tobacco approval applications (PMTA) for newly-deemed tobacco products to August 8th, 2022. FDA will issue guidance on the matter soon.
FDA Inches Closer to Harm Reduction
Lindsey Stroud – The Heartland Institute
On Friday, July 28 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced changes in their regulation of tobacco products, including electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). FDA ascribed their Center for Tobacco Products the task of reconsidering “the aspects of the implementation of the final deeming rule.” Included in the reconsideration is an extension of four years for applications of ENDS products to be submitted, from November 8, 2018 to August 8, 2022.
Vaping’s uncool?
My lungs don’t care about your fashion tips – Mark Gentili
Cards on the table: I don’t hate smoking. Never have. Likely never will. I know tobacco was killing me, destroying my lungs and turning too much of my hard-earned money into so much smoke. All true.
But still, I loved smoking. I loved the taste. I loved the excuse it gave me to step away from whatever work I was doing. I loved the burn at the back of my throat and the warm feeling of fullness in my lungs.
Here is more from David Sweanor – https://t.co/9oGo4TSgIK
— ABillionChars❀ (@OhCanadaLady) August 3, 2017
Convenience Stores refuse to accept an ‘inconvenient’ truth – Vaping Saves Lives!
Faux ‘health concerns’ reek of financial self interest. https://t.co/N7ZWddFkD1— INNCOorg (@INNCOorg) August 4, 2017
Attacks on e-cigarettes one-sided
Rosamund Lee, Yuen Long
I refer to the report, “Vaping and e-cigarettes in Hong Kong: a dangerous gateway or a safe tool for quitting smoking?” (July 26). I feel deeply disappointed with the way our government, health academics and the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) have handled the emergence of e-cigarettes.
University College London, Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians have conducted studies that conclude that e-cigarettes are far safer than smoking, and there is a very low risk associated with their long-term use…
More evidence shows
Vaping helps people quit smoking – Orange County Register
“[I]n 2014-15, e-cigarette users in the United States attempted to quit cigarette smoking and succeeded in quitting at higher rates than nonusers,” the study concluded. “This provides the clearest result to date that e-cigarette use is not only associated with a higher smoking cessation rate at the individual user level but also at the population level.”
Tell it to me straight, doctor:
Why openness from health experts is vital – Robin Bisson
Many people might be relieved to hear the news that by not finishing a prescription of antibiotics, we’re not accelerating the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. Writing in the BMJ recently, infectious disease experts turned the simple advice to always complete the course on its head: continuing to use antibiotics after an infection has cleared up can, in fact, increase the risk of bacteria becoming drug-resistant.
Sarah Jakes interview GFN 2017
David MacKintosh talks to Sarah Jakes about GFN 2017
Big tobacco comes to Vancouver
Pitching new ways to consume nicotine – Derrick Penner
Cigarettes are harmful and smoking kills, but tobacco executive Jorge Araya argues that his industry should be allowed to play a more visible role in offering up alternative products that he says will help drive smoking rates down.
“I’m not here to defend tobacco,” Araya, president of Imperial Tobacco Canada, told a small group gathered for a Canadian Club of Vancouver luncheon at the Terminal City Club on Thursday.
Big Tobacco Won’t Let the FDA Cut Nicotine
Anna Edney and Jennifer Kaplan
In 2009 a Democratic Congress and president gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. Eight years later, under a White House and Congress controlled by Republicans, the FDA made its strongest use of that authority. On July 28 it said it would move to cut the level of nicotine in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels. The news shocked Washington and Wall Street, sending tobacco stocks plunging and lobbyists scrambling to respond.
On this Day…2016
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
Drafting A Consultation Response
Dick Puddlecote
Regular readers will remember that we often get involved in public sectorconsultations on issues we discuss on these pages. We haven’t done one of these for a while but there is a consultation out now for such a crassly stupid idea that it’d be rude not to have your say….
Smoking rate hits low in England
Cancer Research UK
The number of people smoking in England has hit the lowest levels on record, according to Public Health England (PHE) figures. In 2015, smoking levels decreased to 16.9% in England, PHE’s Annual Population Survey (APS) shows. This is down from 17.8% in 2014.
Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of prevention, said: “Smoking is still the biggest preventable cause of cancer, so it’s good to see that smoking rates are at a record low.
Kiwis have got it right on vaping
Terry Barnes – Catallaxy Files
While nanny state McCarthyists of public health rule the roost in Australian harm reduction, thank heavens our Kiwi cousins across the Dutch have their heads sensibly screwed on.
This week, >the New Zealand government announced it will be legislating to make nicotine-containing vaping devices legally available to New Zealand’s half a million smokers. Furthermore, these devices will be sold as retail products to over 18s in direct competition with cigarettes, not as prescription-only, highly-restricted therapeutic products.
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